Humanity survived all its Millenniums. Regardless if whether
you believed the year 2000 or 2001 represented the millennial
year, no worldwide horrendous natural disaster happened, the
Apocalypse did not occur, the Rapture never came, Jesus did not
return, and the world did not end. Not a single religious prediction
came true. Of course some faithful will continue to believe the
End will occur at any day, regardless of precise dates, but if
anything should inform us about the fallacy of superstition,
then two thousand years of false prophecy should give
us a clue. How many more millennia will it take before the faithful
begin to question their beliefs?

Not that a few superstitious people didn't try to help the
destruction of the world, mind you. According to the World Tribune,
"The last weeks of 1999 saw the largest US counter-terrorism
operation in history." Attacks by terrorist cells in eight
countries failed due to preventative measures by law enforcement
and intelligence agencies. Even the Y2K Millennium bombing attempt
of Los Angeles International Airport by Muslim extremists failed.
Yes, even Islam has its Last Days beliefs.

"With small means and great faith, we can defeat
the mightiest military power of modern times."

-Osama bin Laden

Unfortunately, one attack on America by fanatical believers
had success. The September 11th attack by religious extremists
killed around three thousand people. Fortunately this did not
destroy the United States and it looks like our economy will
survive. We know now that the attackers held a strong faith
in a God and acted according to their beliefs.

Revealingly, all of the millennial attackers, including the
Sept. 11 terrorists, al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban
had one thing in common to drive their vengeful acts: their faith
in God. Think about it. If no one held a belief in God, those
attacks could not have occurred. If one thing stands out as the
most dangerous threat to national security, then it must come
in the form of people who worship God with a little more zeal
than other people. The Sept. 11 attacks should have taught us
an obvious lesson about the dangers of faith in God, but
unfortunately, just the opposite occurred for most gullible Americans.

Instead of chastising the attackers for their extreme faith
in God, or for pointing out the dangers of faith, our President
did just the opposite by appealing to America with his own brand
of gun-loving Christian faith. George W. Bush acting like a self
appointed priest of God spoke of a monumental struggle of good
versus evil, crusades, cited Biblical scripture, and prayed.
He broke the concept of separation of Church and State by establishing
funding for faith-based organizations. Anyone who has read "Animal
Farm" will recognize Bush's Orwellian method of transforming
words like "religion" into "faith-based"
to get around the Constitution. Instead of attacking the very
source for which all these attempted and successful attacks occurred,
he promoted faith to a new level never before seen in American
politics. Faith, the very instrument which has created the most
misery for humans throughout history and the root cause of the
Sept. 11 attacks has just become more powerful. As a result,
faith has made the world far more dangerous. For if an Apocalypse-like
event does occur, it won't come from gods, devils, or godless
atheists but rather from gullible human beings who force fit
their beliefs to a self-fulfilled prophecy in accordance to their
faith in God. Unfortunately both Osama bin Laden and George
W. Bush have faith in god as a common denominator and
both have spread its dangerous seeds. Osama helped spread faith
in Islamic countries and George has helped spread faith in Christian
countries. Both sides think of the other as Evil. Thank you Osama.
Thank you George. Thank you very very much for turning the world
into an Aristotelian two-valued superstitious war of black and
white.

George Bush's appeal to Christianity and Islam as peaceful
religions insults the history of violent religion. Faith relies
on hope and ignorance. Faith by its very meaning rests on a belief
that requires no evidence. And faith in a vengeful God or Allah
(as described in the Bible and the Koran) virtually guarantees
violent actions by some of its most faithful believers.

Not only did George W. Bush fail to warn us of the dangers
of religious belief, but he resorted to the most outlandish belief
possible when he included in his speeches the words, "and
God continues to bless America." God Bless America? GOD
BLESS AMERICA? Over 3000 Americans died on September 11th! The
unemployment rate has risen to almost six percent. America has
gone into a economic recession. Its treasury surplus has dwindled
to nothing and many predict America will enter another vast deficit.
Americans feel scared to death and have yet failed to "continue
life as before." And what of the hundreds or thouands of
innocent Afghan citizens who died for our cause due to U.S. bombings?
Do their deaths count as a blessing too?

When thousands of people die, our economy suffers to such
an extent, and we feel fear as never before, then in what imaginable
sense could a blessing of America mean? The word blessing means:
a special favor granted by God; anything promoting or contributing
to happiness, well-being, or prosperity. If we should force a
religious word to best describe the results of September 11th
attacks, then I can't find a better term to use than the word
curse ("Execration" describes it better in a secular
term). And what resulted from all the praying, flag waving, singing
God Bless America, and the War Against Terrorism? Has anyone
come back from the dead? Has praying restored the economy? Have
we really thwarted terrorism in the world or has the religious
outpouring caused greater hate against America and increased
the terrorism threat?

By all appearances, all the blessings and prayers have done
nothing but console the pious mind into a feeling of a
religious and false safety. Addictive narcotics could not have
better insolated them from reality and critical thinking as had
faith based on God.

"There was a time when religion ruled the world.
It is known as The Dark Ages."

-Ruth Hurmence Green

We have survived the Millennium but we may have in store for
us a Dark Ages II if we let superstitious people run our world.
Unfortunately America's political bent has moved toward a more
religious direction. Thanks to the fanatical terrorists and our
faithful president, we have in effect become a little more like
the Taliban. History has shown us that governments controlled
by religion have always promoted intolerance, wars, ignorance,
and misery. America has its religious fanatical religious extremists
too, but there occur reasons why our brand of extremists have
exhibited less violence and intolerance than extremists who live
in religiously controlled countries. Our forefathers knew about
the dangers of religion based governments and purposely formed
our Constitution as completely secular and included certain checks
and balances. With freedom-of-speech and the separation-of-church-and-state
as primary concepts we have enjoyed the power to criticize and
to speak out against religious bigotry and the threats they impose.
Religion has strong protection in America, but government run
by religion guarantees intolerance of other religions. If we
abandon our Constitutional rights to the faithful, then we will
have no alternative but to succumb to the dangers of those who
have faith in God.

Sadly, even though our government started as secular, there
has occurred religious political grass-root movements that have
successfully put politicians, who have a strong faith in God,
into local, state, and federal power. Many of these religious
politicians want to erode the freedom of speech and church-state
separations. It has now become virtually impossible for an admitted
nonbeliever to hold office in any congressional or presidential
position.

The following fact should disturb you if you live as a disbeliever:
even though approximately 13% of Americans have no belief in God, and
whether you call yourself non-religious, humanist, atheist, agnostic,
freethinker, or secular, there exists no representation in
government for those who reject religion. Note that women,
gays, blacks, Indians, etc., all have representation in U.S.
government, but not one federal statesman represents the
disbelievers.

So lets feel fortunate that we survived the dangers of faith
(so far) but I appeal to those who have an inkling of rational
thought to question those who appeal to faith in God by
writing your congressmen, newspapers, posting messages on the
internet, or simply discussing it with your friends. What better
New Year's resolution than to make it a point to express your
disbelief and to question faith as a viable means to knowledge
and peace. Even if you believe in a god, surely you understand
that extremefaith in God by people of other religions
can present a danger even if you don't see it in your
faith-based-institution. No?

Have a Happy New Year as our earth (and America) continues
to orbit the sun.